The real challenge in reviewing this book is trying to tell you everything I loved about it while not spoiling it. Because I thought I knew what this book was going to be about from the blurb but it was SO much more than that in all the best ways.

This story is a cozy gothic, which is new to me. I imagined this entire story through a “day dream” lens if that makes any sense lol the writing felt delicate and was absolutely beautiful in the way the author described things.

Our FMC who is kicked out of school and comes home to be betrothed to a god to save her family, all while also living next door to the man who broke her heart as a child. I promise that short summary doesn’t even begin to touch the tip of the iceberg of what happens but it was 100% enough to draw me in. I loved the sense of love and family that this story brought to life.

I don’t want to spoil anything but this is 100% worth grabbing at the bookstore during your next self-care Saturday! I plan on going through this author’s backlog too 😍

3/5
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry & Holt for an arc. All opinions are my own.

Characters: 2/5
Romance: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 5/5

This book reminds me a lot of A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid mixed with Night in the Woods (the video game). The vibes were immaculate and the plot was pretty interesting. However, I found the romance and characters pretty underwhelming—especially Camille. I genuinely couldn’t tell you anything about Camille other than that she smells like sweet strawberries, and she doesn’t like math. I also think that any of the last 5 chapters could have been the ending, which made the end feel a bit drawn out. Maybe I’m just biased towards open endings, but I think this story would have had a stronger impact if it didn’t wrap up so neatly.

I don't normally go for YA, but this was such a beautiful read. Haunting, action-packed and full of romance. It had sublime world-building and a gorgeous story that unfolded in every positive way. Lark, Alastair and Camille are all complicated and flawed. But their building trust was a beautiful thing to watch. If you love Gothic, slow-burning and captivating stories please pick this up!

The tale is one of quiet beauty—its prose darkly lyrical, each page steeped in salt and shadow. The seaside is not just a backdrop but a mood, heavy with memories and mystery.

It’s a story wrapped in gothic romance, filled with slow-burning tension and characters drawn with striking depth. Lark, at its heart, is a heroine both strong and aching—her path tangled in family secrets, broken friendships, and the looming presence of a god bound to forest and sea.

What unfolds is intimate and unsettling, a descent into old griefs and older powers. I was wholly captivated. A story for those who love their fiction laced with dread, longing, and the soft chill of something ancient stirring.

This book completely stole my heart. Tenderly, I Am Devoured is a gentle, haunting, and profoundly emotional journey. From the first page I felt the beauty and the ache entwined in every line. It is a story that tastes like longing and loss yet offers the sweetest balm of connection and healing.

The main character is delicate and fierce at once. Watching them navigate grief and desire feels like watching a heart learn to beat again. The way Clipstone writes about longing feels like poetry. Every scene resonated. Every word landed like a soft exhale.

The romance unfolds slowly but steadily. There is an intimacy that is both tender and raw. You root for every whispered moment and ache for what’s held in silence. The dynamic between the characters is authentic and earned. Their growth feels earned. Their moments of hope feel earned.

This is not a loud or fast story. It is a soft echo. It holds space for grief and for healing and for the beauty that is found in small, subtlest acts of kindness. It reminds you that even when sorrow feels like an ocean it can also soothe you.

If you are craving an emotional, reflective read that stays with you like a gentle melody, Tenderly, I Am Devoured is a stunning, quiet masterpiece.

I saw a blurb that described this book as “romantic folk horror where Saltburn meets The Secret History,” and they spoke no lies. Reading Tenderly, I am devoured felt like walking into a renaissance painting hung in a guilded frame. It was gothic, it was ethereal and I have never wished I was betrothed to a Cthonic swan god so badly (adding this to the list of sentences I never thought I would say). I knew I was going to love it, but it exceeded all of my expectations.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅:

♡ m/f/f poly romance
♡ dark academia, cottagecore vibes
♡ she’s betrothed to an ancient God
♡ family secrets, haunted legacies
♡ folk horror atmosphere

Tenderly, I Am Devoured was such a beautiful story about growing up, familial responsibilities. and finding your place in the world. Lacrimosa is recently 18 and expelled from her boarding school under odd circumstances. She returns home to her small seaside village to find her two older brothers struggling to keep their family salt mine open. Obviously the next logical step is to agree to a betrothal with a chthonic god of the sea named Therion. During the marriage ceremony, Lacrimosa and Therion are attacked. Lacrimosa pairs up with her estranged childhood friends she has complicated feelings for in order to save Therion, and herself, from fading from the world. Relationships are explored along the way, and I personally loved the development of the relationships between Lacrimosa and the friends, the friends and Therion, and how it all played out in the end. Tenderly, I Am Devoured was atmospheric, dark, and hopeful all at once. Therion is very Howl-coded in personality and appearance from Howl's Moving Castle, and I loved that aspect so much.

4.5 ⭐️

I’m not going to lie at first it took me some time to understand what the heck was going on😅🤭
But after I started understanding I started getting hooked on it.
& let me just say this off the bat I FREAKING DISLIKED MARCUS! How can a dad be soo cruel to his own kids.
I had mixed feelings about Hugo.. I felt bad for him, but I also didn’t like him.
& then at first I wasn’t sure who I was rooting for if it was Lark with Camille or Lark with Alastair or Lark & Therion
🤭😅
But then as I read I understood they were all connected and had a special bond.

Some of my fave quotes

“I don’t want to be something fragile, too delicate to touch. If I must be glass then I want to be the razored edge of a broken pane—sharp & dangerous.”

“I know how it feels to love someone who is like a poison. To want so desperately to please them, even though it wounds you.”

“If I was brave, it was only to save you.”

This book felt like slipping into a fever dream: haunting, poetic, and full of aching emotion. I’m not even sure I could explain the plot if I tried, but I felt everything. The atmosphere is stunningly gothic, the prose is lush, and the whole thing wraps around you like fog. If you’re into slow-burn, emotionally intense stories that live in metaphor and mood, this one will absolutely devour you.

🦢 Chthonic Gods
👩🏼 Lacrimosa Arriscane
🧂 Salt Mines
🤝🏻 A Deal With A God
🎨 Art
🏛 Academia
💔 Betrayal

WOW, this book. I'm kind of at a loss for words. If I could say one simple thing about it, it's one of the most beautifully written books I've read in a long time. It makes me yearn to be in Verse, at Lark's home by the sea, to swim in the waves & experience the setting.

I can not give enough praise to this book. It's unique. It's interesting. It makes me wish I could read it again for the first time.

*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is my honest feedback about the book as an avid reader.*

I finished the last small portion of the book with both the ebook & the audiobook, & love the narrator. They did a really great job.

Huge thank you to the author & NetGalley for letting me read & review this book. 💜

I highly recommend you go grab a copy! It's available now! I certainly will be adding at least one edition to my shelves for my forever collection. 💜✨️📚

It's hard to pin down what I think about this book. Did it keep me sucked in? Yes. Do I have any idea what I read or why? No. It's got a lot of emotion and feelings, though.

I had a hard time connecting with the characters, well written and I like the author's style. I just think maybe the premise is not for me.

A hauntingly beautiful gothic novel rife with lush prose and compelling characters. Highly recommend this book.

3.5 stars! first off, this book would be a delightful movie. it would translate so well to the screen - make the story really come alive.

nearly always in a love triangle, i am 100% on the side of one love interest — but not here, which is very rare, and shows how well the dynamics were written. i loved both camille and alistair. their love story gave us beautiful lines like this: “lark, the entire world, and all the good it has to offer, will be limitless, and yours.” same goes for the “then” and “now” split timelines, both of which i enjoyed equally. loved the relationship between lark and her brothers.

unfortunately, i think the author needed to make it clearer much, much sooner that the “hallucinations” first lark, then all three of them, experienced, was actually them slipping into the chthonic realm. most of the time i felt ~very confused when lark slipped between worlds and skimmed due to my confusion, because i felt things were under explained. some things also got a bit repetitive, like the use of the phrase “he is a selkie kept too long ashore” and more generally, physical descriptions of the sea, the sky, the fields, the sunsets. all of that could have been trimmed down to not tire out the reader so much. there was too much purple prose for my comfort. lastly, i felt that of the two main antagonists (i won't spoil who, as one comes along later), one was too flat and cartoonishly evil, and the other was portrayed in too sympathetic of a light.

ultimately, however, i did really enjoy this story and thought it was very original - great gothic vibes. BEAUTIFUL cover!

thank u to netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Tenderly, I Am Devoured is the kind of book that wraps around you like mist—eerie, poetic, and quietly intense. Lyndall Clipstone’s writing is rich with atmosphere; the setting feels alive, almost like a character in itself. It’s one of those stories where you’re not entirely sure what’s real and what’s metaphor, and honestly, I loved that.

The gothic undertones and emotional depth really worked for me. It’s less about fast pacing or action and more about lingering in the feelings—the longing, the isolation, the unraveling of identity and desire. There were moments that made me pause just to sit with the weight of a sentence or an image.

That said, it’s definitely a mood piece. If you’re looking for a tight plot or constant movement, this probably isn’t it. But if you’re in the right headspace, it hits hard in that dreamy, aching kind of way. Think Crimson Peak meets A Dowry of Blood—lush and laced with shadows.

Not for everyone, but if you’re someone who appreciates a slow-burn gothic with lyrical prose and a touch of the grotesque, this one’s worth sinking into.

I wanted to love this. Old gods, a setup that gives me Hades & Persephone vibes, a little dark academia?? It was marketed as something that I could have (and should have) loved. But, unfortunately, I... didn't. The pacing felt really rushed, and the relationship between our main character, Lark, and the love interests (yeah, there are, like, three of them) felt extremely messy. I wish we had gotten more time in the flashbacks while Lark is at Marchmain Academy - where the dark academia vibes would have blossomed - because I was extremely interested in Lark's relationship with Damson, but what happened between them at the school was brief, and while I understand that it wasn't the focus of the book and the plot, I would have loved to see it fleshed out a little bit more. Overall, I think this had so much potential and it just fell a little flat for me.

Dark academia meets cottagecore?! Sign me up!🤭 this story has everything I wanted dark academia romance with a bit of horror! The characters and story was very well written and the first chapter had me hooked ! If you’re a fan of salt burn if definitely has that vibe with its own gothic aesthetic romance 🖤✨🦢

If you’re into:
✨“Who did this to you?” energy
✨ 2M/F/F polycules that ache
✨ Secret history vibes and soft girl heroines
✨ A dark, seductive, and myth-soaked tale..
Definitely give this a go!

Whimsical, emotional and so beautiful. Stunning prose that hits you right inbthe heart. If you love dark academia and LGBTQ books, you need to read this.

3 stars
——————

I really wanted to like this one more than I did.

What I really enjoyed was the atmosphere of the book and how it’s established and created. It was vivid in my mind and really drew me into the story. The author does such a great job at establishing mythology for this world and I was fascinated by it. I like how the story was told in flashbacks and now. The past is just as important in this one, so seeing it explored really helped to establish the present for me. But the bulk of the book, the actual story, just didn’t catch me.

The premise was interesting but the actual story just sort of fell apart. The pacing is on the slow side and it took me a bit to get into it. The concept of a marriage to a God and the resulting fall out set up a really good story but the actual one told didn’t do anything for me. It felt very disjointed. I wasn’t connected to any of the characters and I found the polyamorous relationship, despite the representation it presented, really “icky” with two siblings involved. And while I loved the exploration of the past, I found a lot of Lark’s relationship with Damson to just be unnecessary, a bit like filler to bulk out the book. I just don’t think it was necessary to spend so much time establishing that storyline when it just sort of sitters out anyway in the end.

I really have mixed feelings about this one, thus the more neutral rating. I can see it having its audience, it just wasn’t for me.

Tenderly, I Am Devoured was strange and unlike any romantasy I’ve read (although I haven’t read many). It was beautifully written and had a fairy tale quality to it. I’ve read and enjoyed all three of Clipstone’s other books and this was no exception.

As always, Clipstone’s writing was vivid and lyrical. I absolutely loved all the descriptions in this book, from sights to smells, down to what the characters were wearing. I felt full immersed in the world of Verse, especially because I was also listening to the audiobook. At times I felt like I was right there with the characters at Saltswan, looking out at the sea. The author stated that they were inspired by Saltburn and I can definitely see how it influenced this book. Tenderly, I Am Devoured stands on it’s own, though.

The book wasn’t super plot heavy, it was more about the emotional journey the characters go on. The story goes from the present to different points of Lark’s past. I really enjoyed the time spent with Lark at Marchmain Academy and I would have liked if we had gotten more. I wanted to spend more time during the beginning of the relationship between Lark and the Felimath siblings as well. I found the salt priests and gods to be interesting and would have liked to know more, especially about Therion. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Lark’s world.

The book includes a romantic plot involving polyamory which isn’t something that I’ve often seen depicted. Kudos to the author for representing poly relationships. The intimate scenes were handled very well and weren’t graphic. The book was more about Lark finding herself so I didn’t think any more intimate scenes were needed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for a summer read you can get lost in while you listen to the ocean waves or drink some tea, this is it. I’d recommend this to readers who like romantasy with a dash of horror (this author is known for writing flower threaded horror). Also, if you’ve never read Lyndall Clipstone’s other books I highly suggest you do. My suggestion is to read Unholy Terrors next! Thank you to the author and Mcmillan Children’s Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC for review.

AUDIOBOOK:
As far as the audiobook goes, the narrator did an excellent job of bringing the book to life. I really liked listening to the story. Each character had their own distinct voice. I particularly liked the voiced used for Therion. The way Therion would say “Lacrimosa” was just perfect. I’d recommend listening to the audiobook while reading the physical or ebook at the same time. I’d like to thank the author and Spotify Audiobooks for providing me with an ALC of the audiobook.